Tuukka Rask was born March 10, 1987 in Savonlinna, Finland. Selected first round, 21st overall, by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, Rask honed his skills in Finland prior to arriving in North America.

A butterfly style netminder, Rask played two full seasons with Ilves in Finland's top league before he arrived in North America. Although Rask was originally drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs, the club opted to trade the Finish netminder to the Boston Bruins in exchange for former Calder Trophy winner Andrew Raycroft.
Rask joined the Bruins' organization in 2007-08 and spent the majority of his time with the club's AHL affiliate in Providence. During that season Rask made his NHL debut, a 4-2 win, against the club that had originally drafted him back in 2005.

The 2009-10 season was an excellent one for the Finnish netminder. He led all goaltenders in goals against average (1.97) and save percentage (.931) and usurped the previous season's Vezina Trophy winner, Tim Thomas, as the Bruins' starting goalie for much of the year.

In 2011 playoffs, Rask served as Bruins backup goaltender as the the team won the franchise's first Stanley Cup since 1972. After surviving a first round scare from the Montreal Canadiens, the Bruins steamrolled over the Philadelphia Flyers and endured a seven game battle with the Tampa Bay Lightning en route to the Stanley Cup Final where they would take on the powerful Vancouver Canucks. The Bruins would defeat the Canucks in a classic seven games series.

During the 2013-14 season, Rask would solidify himself as one of the game's elite goaltenders and was awarded the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender as selected by the NHL General Managers. Rask backstopped the Bruins to an NHL-best 117 points with a sparkling 2.04 goals against average, .930 save percentage while posting seven shut outs.

REGULAR SEASON

PLAYOFFS

Season

Club

League

GP

W

L

T

SO

Avg

GP

W

L

T

SO

Avg

2003-04

Ilves Tampere U18

Fin-U18

9

4

3

2

0

2.81

2003-04

Ilves Tampere Jr.

Fin-Jr.

30

12

10

7

2

2.20

3

1

2

0

2.02

2003-04

Finland

WJ18-A

5

2

1

2

1

1.61

2004-05

Ilves Tampere Jr.

Fin-Jr.

26

17

3

4

2

1.85

10

9

1

6

0.87

2004-05

Ilves Tampere

Finland

4

0

1

1

0

4.46

2004-05

Finland

WJC-A

5

2.96

2004-05

Finland

WJ18-A

5

3.02

2005-06

Ilves Tampere Jr.

Fin-Jr.

1

0

2.00

2005-06

Suomi U20

Finland-2

3

0

2.01

2005-06

Ilves Tampere

Finland

30

12

8

7

2

2.09

3

0

3

0

0

2.33

2005-06

Finland

WJC-A

6

4

2

0

1

2.11

2006-07

Suomi U20

Finland-2

1

0

1

0

0

4.14

2006-07

Ilves Tampere

Finland

49

18

18

10

3

2.38

7

2

5

0

0

3.02

2006-07

Finland

WJC-A

6

0

0

3.07

2007-08

Boston Bruins

NHL

4

2

1

1

0

3.26

2007-08

Providence Bruins

AHL

45

27

13

2

1

2.33

10

6

4

2

2.18

2008-09

Boston Bruins

NHL

1

1

0

0

1

0.00

2008-09

Providence Bruins

AHL

57

33

20

4

4

2.50

16

9

7

0

2.21

2009-10

Boston Bruins

NHL

45

22

12

5

5

1.97

13

7

6

0

2.61

2010-11

Boston Bruins

NHL

29

11

14

2

2

2.67

2011-12

Boston Bruins

NHL

23

11

8

3

3

2.05

2012-13

HC Skoda Plzen

CzRep

17

1

2.11

2012-13

Boston Bruins

NHL

36

19

10

5

5

2.00

22

14

8

0

3

1.88

2013-14

Boston Bruins

NHL

58

36

15

6

7

2.04

12

7

5

2

1.99

2013-14

Finland

Olympics

4

3

1

0

1

1.73

NHL Totals

196

102

60

22

23

2.11

47

28

19

0

5

2.10

NHL First All-Star Team (2014) Vezina Trophy (2014)

Traded to Boston by Toronto for Andrew Raycroft, June 24, 2006. Signed as a free agent by Plzen (CzRep), September 25, 2012.